But today at the SALT conference for the hedge-fund industry, a collection of heavy hitters was asked what they read first thing each morning. Their answers were, well, motley.

Bloomberg News (2007 photo)

Daniel Loeb likes a good morning meditation.

Lee Ainslie of Maverick Capital is the sloth of the group. "I put a computer in my closet because I'm too lazy to get up and go downstairs,” he told the audience. “I see an email that's sent to me about all the news about our companies," or the firm's investments.

“I meditate first thing,” said Dan Loeb of Third Point, according to a person who heard his remarks. “After I'm done clearing my mind I go online and read RSS feeds from different writers I like.” He didn’t identify his favorite scribblers.

Israel “Izzy” Englander, who runs the Millennium Management hedge fund, prefers to kick off the A.M. with the anti-meditation tack. "First thing I do is look at the P&L," he said, to get a glimpse at overseas trading.

"The New York Post. It's my treat to myself,” responded James Dinan, the York Capital Management honcho and a long-time investor in distressed and merging companies. (Seemingly obligatory disclosure: the Post, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp. Deal Journal is still bummed he didn’t mention us.)